This episode is brought to you by Saily. Get an exclusive 15% discount on Saily eSIM
data plans! Download Saily app and use code 'spacenuts' at checkout.
Space Nuts Episode: Mars Mysteries and Cosmic Feasts
Join Andrew Dunkley and Professor Fred Watson in this intriguing episode of Space Nuts, where they dive into the latest discoveries and discussions in the realm of astronomy and Space exploration. From mysterious messages from Mars to the insatiable appetite of black holes, this episode is packed with fascinating insights and cosmic wonders.
Episode Highlights:
- Mars Message Decoded : Explore the story behind a mysterious message sent from Mars in 2023, now decoded by a father-daughter Timms. Discover the artistic and scientific collaboration that led to this unique project and its implications for extraterrestrial communication.
- Ancient Mars' Climate Conundrum : Delve into a new study that challenges our understanding of Mars' history. Learn about the planet's carbon dioxide cycle and the possibility of ancient lakes and rivers hidden beneath layers of ice and CO2.
- Black Hole's Cosmic Feast : Uncover the staggering discovery of a black hole consuming matter at an unprecedented rate. Understand the implications of this finding for our knowledge of black hole growth in the early universe.
For more Space Nuts, including our continually updating newsfeed and to listen to all our episodes, visit our website (https://www.spacenutspodcast.com) . Follow us on social media at SpaceNutsPod on facebook, X, YouTube, Tumblr, Instagram, and TikTok. We love engaging with our community, so be sure to drop us a message or comment on your favourite platform.
For more Space and Astronomy News Podcasts, visit our HQ at www.bitesz.com (https://www.bitesz.com) .
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/space-nuts/support. (https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/space-nuts/support.)
Stay curious, keep looking up, and join us next time for more stellar insights and cosmic wonders. Until then, clear skies and happy stargazing.
Episode link: https://play.headliner.app/episode/23935966?utm_source=youtube
00:00:00 --> 00:00:02 hi there thanks for joining us this is
00:00:02 --> 00:00:04 Space Nuts we talk astronomy space
00:00:04 --> 00:00:07 science and sometimes a a new cocktail
00:00:08 --> 00:00:11 recipe uh on this episode uh Fred and I
00:00:11 --> 00:00:15 will be focusing on Mars uh back in 2023
00:00:15 --> 00:00:19 so long ago a message was sent from Mars
00:00:19 --> 00:00:22 uh back to Earth and it's taken a while
00:00:22 --> 00:00:24 but it's now being decoded what's this
00:00:24 --> 00:00:26 all about who decoded it that's a bit of
00:00:26 --> 00:00:29 a surprise we'll look into that uh
00:00:29 --> 00:00:31 there's a black hole out there somewhere
00:00:31 --> 00:00:34 and it is very very hungry it's um it's
00:00:34 --> 00:00:37 probably obese as a matter of fact and
00:00:37 --> 00:00:38 oh another story about Mars I nearly
00:00:39 --> 00:00:42 forgot um we're looking at its history
00:00:42 --> 00:00:44 in terms of its carbon dioxide and and
00:00:44 --> 00:00:47 the water circulation of the red planet
00:00:47 --> 00:00:50 it's really fascinating and it could
00:00:50 --> 00:00:52 give us a completely different idea of
00:00:52 --> 00:00:55 how the planet came to be as it is today
00:00:55 --> 00:00:57 we'll look at all of that and more on
00:00:57 --> 00:01:01 this edition of Space Nuts 15 seconds
00:01:01 --> 00:01:05 guidance is internal 10 9 ignition
00:01:05 --> 00:01:10 sequence start Space Nuts 5 4 3 2 1 2 3
00:01:10 --> 00:01:14 4 5 5 4 3 2 1 Space Nuts as the nuts
00:01:14 --> 00:01:17 reported feels good and it's the man of
00:01:18 --> 00:01:20 the hour Professor Fred Watson
00:01:20 --> 00:01:22 astronomer at large but people are
00:01:22 --> 00:01:23 coming up with all sorts of different
00:01:23 --> 00:01:25 titles for you Fred because even on our
00:01:25 --> 00:01:28 social media platforms people have been
00:01:28 --> 00:01:29 having a bit of fun after you uh
00:01:29 --> 00:01:32 announced you were uh getting out of the
00:01:32 --> 00:01:33 public service last week and moving into
00:01:33 --> 00:01:37 a new uh new role sometime in the future
00:01:37 --> 00:01:40 at a university uh but uh even Hugh in
00:01:40 --> 00:01:43 the studio chimed in he's called you the
00:01:43 --> 00:01:44 astronomer in the
00:01:45 --> 00:01:47 wild yeah I quite like that in the
00:01:47 --> 00:01:48 wilderness might might be the better
00:01:48 --> 00:01:51 word it might feel like that for a while
00:01:52 --> 00:01:56 that's right but yeah uh but uh lots of
00:01:56 --> 00:01:58 um lots of people wishing you well from
00:01:58 --> 00:02:01 the Space Nuts fraternities
00:02:01 --> 00:02:02 yeah uh you've been busy you've been
00:02:02 --> 00:02:05 down in Victoria which is one of the
00:02:05 --> 00:02:07 southern states of New South Wales
00:02:07 --> 00:02:09 talking about stuff actually somebody
00:02:09 --> 00:02:13 was there and posted a picture of you on
00:02:13 --> 00:02:15 on Facebook I think it was one of our
00:02:15 --> 00:02:18 Space Nuts audience that's nice I um
00:02:18 --> 00:02:20 look at Facebook from time to time
00:02:20 --> 00:02:21 should and find out what's going on in
00:02:21 --> 00:02:25 the in the uh in the universe or
00:02:25 --> 00:02:26 whatever it's
00:02:26 --> 00:02:29 called yeah whatever it's called I've
00:02:29 --> 00:02:32 lost the Al together now that's just a
00:02:32 --> 00:02:34 bit of jetl coming back from deepest
00:02:34 --> 00:02:36 Victoria last
00:02:36 --> 00:02:39 night I thought one one thing I saw um
00:02:39 --> 00:02:41 and I was actually at this place this
00:02:41 --> 00:02:44 Sea Lake is where is where we were doing
00:02:44 --> 00:02:46 the asttr Fest uh it is a little town
00:02:46 --> 00:02:48 and it's right next to a lake that looks
00:02:48 --> 00:02:50 like a sea uh which is quite it's called
00:02:50 --> 00:02:54 Sea Lake um oh is in the letter sea no
00:02:54 --> 00:02:59 the sea C right so that's too much of a
00:02:59 --> 00:03:01 coin incidence yeah well it is a
00:03:01 --> 00:03:03 coincidence um it's often called the sky
00:03:03 --> 00:03:06 mirror because the the borong people the
00:03:06 --> 00:03:07 the First Nations people who are
00:03:07 --> 00:03:10 indigenous there they they used to have
00:03:10 --> 00:03:12 legends that it was a mirror of the sky
00:03:12 --> 00:03:14 because it's a Salt Lake it's dead flat
00:03:15 --> 00:03:17 very very smooth when it's full of water
00:03:17 --> 00:03:20 it wasn't that full uh this weekend but
00:03:20 --> 00:03:22 uh when I saw it last year it was it was
00:03:22 --> 00:03:23 more impressive there's a lot more water
00:03:23 --> 00:03:26 in it but um something I did notice last
00:03:26 --> 00:03:27 year and followed up because I had no
00:03:27 --> 00:03:29 idea what it was but we had a much
00:03:29 --> 00:03:32 better a look at it this time uh is a
00:03:32 --> 00:03:35 solar concentrator which is just south
00:03:35 --> 00:03:38 of mura and this is a power station that
00:03:38 --> 00:03:41 involves solar panels of a very
00:03:41 --> 00:03:43 different sort they're steerable mirrors
00:03:43 --> 00:03:44 there's a whole there are four of these
00:03:44 --> 00:03:47 towers each one surrounded by an array
00:03:47 --> 00:03:49 of steerable mirrors that can point the
00:03:49 --> 00:03:51 Sun's light to the top of the towers and
00:03:51 --> 00:03:54 there uh there is a working fluid and I
00:03:54 --> 00:03:56 haven't checked out what it is yet it
00:03:56 --> 00:03:57 could be water but I think it's more
00:03:57 --> 00:03:59 likely to be something else that is
00:03:59 --> 00:04:01 turned instantly into steam because of
00:04:01 --> 00:04:03 the heat the intense heat and that
00:04:03 --> 00:04:05 drives turbin so you generate power but
00:04:05 --> 00:04:07 it is quite an extraordinary side to see
00:04:07 --> 00:04:08 them when you going up the highway
00:04:08 --> 00:04:09 towards mil durri it's what caught my
00:04:10 --> 00:04:12 eye last time and as I said I followed
00:04:12 --> 00:04:14 it up and we went and had a look at them
00:04:14 --> 00:04:17 quite an amazing piece of technology uh
00:04:17 --> 00:04:19 with this dazzling blob of light at the
00:04:19 --> 00:04:20 top of each of the towers where the
00:04:21 --> 00:04:24 Sun's light is is focused also an aerial
00:04:24 --> 00:04:28 an aerial shot of it from our flight
00:04:28 --> 00:04:30 down to Melbourne coming back back home
00:04:30 --> 00:04:31 yesterday afternoon so I know what it
00:04:31 --> 00:04:34 looks like from above as well that's I
00:04:34 --> 00:04:36 didn't even know such a thing existed
00:04:36 --> 00:04:39 quite amazing I also while we're talking
00:04:39 --> 00:04:41 about that kind of thing uh I saw a
00:04:41 --> 00:04:43 story this week where the CSO which is
00:04:43 --> 00:04:46 the Australian uh government science
00:04:46 --> 00:04:49 department has um started producing
00:04:49 --> 00:04:51 flexible solar
00:04:51 --> 00:04:54 panels uh which could change the game
00:04:54 --> 00:04:57 completely in terms of power generation
00:04:57 --> 00:04:59 so uh that's that's pretty exciting news
00:04:59 --> 00:05:00 as well
00:05:00 --> 00:05:02 you could wrap them around a Coke can
00:05:02 --> 00:05:04 and keep it cold or heat it up or
00:05:04 --> 00:05:07 whatever you'll like or you could wear
00:05:07 --> 00:05:09 them or you could wear yeah well that's
00:05:09 --> 00:05:11 the thing you could uh I know they put
00:05:11 --> 00:05:13 little solar panels in caps sometimes so
00:05:13 --> 00:05:15 they can turn on a fan and keep your
00:05:16 --> 00:05:18 face cool that sort of thing but this is
00:05:18 --> 00:05:21 this is a much bigger much bigger thing
00:05:21 --> 00:05:23 in the in the power generation game yeah
00:05:23 --> 00:05:26 it's all very exciting uh we better get
00:05:26 --> 00:05:29 on with it Fred and uh we're going to
00:05:29 --> 00:05:31 start off with a couple of stories from
00:05:31 --> 00:05:33 Mars now what's this Mars message all
00:05:34 --> 00:05:36 about that was sent back in 2023 and has
00:05:36 --> 00:05:38 only just been
00:05:38 --> 00:05:42 decoded so it it's it was part of a a
00:05:42 --> 00:05:45 sort of Celebration it was an art
00:05:45 --> 00:05:47 project something called a sign in space
00:05:47 --> 00:05:51 a multi-week art project uh led by
00:05:51 --> 00:05:54 Daniela deales who's the current artist
00:05:54 --> 00:05:58 in Residence at The seti Institute now
00:05:58 --> 00:05:59 you remember the seti Institute search
00:06:00 --> 00:06:02 for extraterrestrial life uh they're in
00:06:02 --> 00:06:04 Mountain View California and they are
00:06:04 --> 00:06:06 very long established they've been going
00:06:06 --> 00:06:08 for a long long time they they actually
00:06:08 --> 00:06:10 have uh facilities they they have their
00:06:10 --> 00:06:12 own telescopes that they run and a lot
00:06:12 --> 00:06:15 of very um very significant scientists
00:06:15 --> 00:06:17 who work there some of whom I know uh
00:06:17 --> 00:06:19 but I don't actually know the artist in
00:06:19 --> 00:06:24 Residence but um what happened was the
00:06:24 --> 00:06:28 uh the this sign in space test which uh
00:06:29 --> 00:06:31 was uh basically carried out by the
00:06:31 --> 00:06:34 European space agency's exomars Trace
00:06:34 --> 00:06:37 gas Orbiter probe uh that was launched
00:06:37 --> 00:06:39 quite a few years ago actually it's one
00:06:39 --> 00:06:41 that was looking for methane in the in
00:06:41 --> 00:06:43 Mars's upper atmosphere and I don't
00:06:43 --> 00:06:45 think they found it there we know it's
00:06:45 --> 00:06:46 there on the surface but not not so much
00:06:46 --> 00:06:49 in the in the atmosphere anyway the the
00:06:49 --> 00:06:54 idea was to to think up uh a a sort of
00:06:54 --> 00:06:57 some sort of signal that we might
00:06:57 --> 00:07:00 receive from an extraterrestrial
00:07:00 --> 00:07:02 intelligence um and so this was a sort
00:07:02 --> 00:07:05 of coded signal that was broadcast by
00:07:05 --> 00:07:08 the Tres gas Orbiter uh in orbit around
00:07:08 --> 00:07:13 Mars and picked up on Earth um and then
00:07:13 --> 00:07:16 uh sort of sent out almost like a
00:07:16 --> 00:07:19 citizen science project uh for people to
00:07:19 --> 00:07:20 have a look at and see if they could
00:07:20 --> 00:07:23 decode it and the the bottom line and
00:07:23 --> 00:07:25 the reason why this is in the news it's
00:07:25 --> 00:07:27 now being decoded by a father daughter
00:07:27 --> 00:07:30 team she's lovely Kent and Kelly Chaffin
00:07:30 --> 00:07:34 are the names of Chaffin uh and um
00:07:34 --> 00:07:36 apparently uh and this is quote from the
00:07:36 --> 00:07:39 esos ISA statement about this uh they
00:07:39 --> 00:07:41 followed their intuition and ran
00:07:41 --> 00:07:44 simulations for hours and days on end
00:07:44 --> 00:07:47 and finally came up with um a decoded
00:07:47 --> 00:07:50 signal uh and once again the EA
00:07:50 --> 00:07:52 statement ien actually checked out the
00:07:52 --> 00:07:53 EA statement in detail just not had time
00:07:54 --> 00:07:56 since we got back uh but it contained
00:07:56 --> 00:07:58 movements that was the thing about this
00:07:58 --> 00:08:02 this uh this decoded message um it
00:08:02 --> 00:08:05 contained movement which uh suggested to
00:08:05 --> 00:08:08 the chaffins that it might contain
00:08:08 --> 00:08:11 information about life uh because life
00:08:11 --> 00:08:15 tends to move uh and so um what they've
00:08:15 --> 00:08:18 got to do now uh having decoded it
00:08:18 --> 00:08:21 they've got to work out what it means uh
00:08:21 --> 00:08:24 and find the possible meanings in this
00:08:24 --> 00:08:26 message um and that's apparently the
00:08:26 --> 00:08:28 overall you know that's the main goal of
00:08:28 --> 00:08:30 this uh project the sign in Space
00:08:30 --> 00:08:33 Project yes uh there is a nice quote uh
00:08:33 --> 00:08:36 from the artist in Residence uh who said
00:08:36 --> 00:08:38 receiving a message from an
00:08:38 --> 00:08:41 extraterrestrial civilization would be a
00:08:41 --> 00:08:43 profoundly transformational experience
00:08:43 --> 00:08:46 for all humankind a sign in space offers
00:08:46 --> 00:08:48 the unprecedented off opportunity to
00:08:49 --> 00:08:50 tangibly rehearse and prepare for this
00:08:50 --> 00:08:53 scenario through Global collaboration
00:08:53 --> 00:08:54 fostering an open-ended search for
00:08:54 --> 00:08:57 meaning across all cultures and
00:08:57 --> 00:09:00 disciplines so is a very nicely you know
00:09:00 --> 00:09:03 uh formulated project and it looks as
00:09:03 --> 00:09:07 though we're halfway there now yeah um
00:09:07 --> 00:09:10 so find out find out eventually what it
00:09:10 --> 00:09:13 means yeah and and well done to Ken and
00:09:13 --> 00:09:17 um is it Kelly or key uh yeah who uh who
00:09:17 --> 00:09:19 who decoded the message uh decoding
00:09:19 --> 00:09:21 doesn't mean as you said we understand
00:09:21 --> 00:09:23 it now they've got to actually figure
00:09:23 --> 00:09:26 out what's within the message uh but it
00:09:26 --> 00:09:30 does kind of sort of Ring of the the the
00:09:30 --> 00:09:31 movie starring Jody Foster called
00:09:31 --> 00:09:34 Contact which was exactly that scenario
00:09:34 --> 00:09:36 where we received an extraterrestrial
00:09:36 --> 00:09:39 signal and a lot of the time it's a very
00:09:39 --> 00:09:42 long film but a lot of the time was
00:09:42 --> 00:09:44 dedicated to deciphering the film and
00:09:44 --> 00:09:46 working out what the messages were and
00:09:46 --> 00:09:49 and ultimately it was the building of a
00:09:49 --> 00:09:51 a spaceship type scenario a wormhole
00:09:52 --> 00:09:53 generator or whatever you want to call
00:09:53 --> 00:09:57 it but um yeah if if the day ever came
00:09:57 --> 00:09:59 where we received a message that May
00:09:59 --> 00:10:02 well be the challenge is figuring out
00:10:02 --> 00:10:04 what's in it because it's okay to
00:10:04 --> 00:10:06 receive something but that doesn't mean
00:10:06 --> 00:10:07 you're going to understand it and that's
00:10:08 --> 00:10:09 that's what this is all about it's quite
00:10:09 --> 00:10:11 extraordinary what a clever concept to
00:10:11 --> 00:10:14 uh to come up with yeah there's a
00:10:14 --> 00:10:16 there's a so there's a nice report about
00:10:16 --> 00:10:20 this on the space.com website uh and
00:10:20 --> 00:10:22 there's the the author has almost be
00:10:22 --> 00:10:25 become poetic because uh there's a very
00:10:25 --> 00:10:28 nice sentence here for all we know alien
00:10:28 --> 00:10:30 communication might more resemble a
00:10:30 --> 00:10:34 collection of odors or the movement of a
00:10:34 --> 00:10:36 pile of leaves in the wind than anything
00:10:36 --> 00:10:38 we recognize as language it's beautiful
00:10:38 --> 00:10:40 SP but I agree with you and in fact
00:10:40 --> 00:10:44 contacts one of my favorite uh favorite
00:10:44 --> 00:10:46 Sci-Fi movies because of that L exactly
00:10:46 --> 00:10:50 all about Linguistics it is it is uh
00:10:50 --> 00:10:51 that that and there's another one I
00:10:51 --> 00:10:53 can't think of the name of it where they
00:10:53 --> 00:10:57 um Earth was visited by an alien species
00:10:57 --> 00:11:00 squid-like creatures and and the
00:11:00 --> 00:11:02 communication barrier was basically the
00:11:02 --> 00:11:04 the the guts of the film because they
00:11:04 --> 00:11:06 couldn't figure out how to talk to each
00:11:06 --> 00:11:09 other and uh yeah that's brilliant I
00:11:09 --> 00:11:12 can't think of the name of it um anyway
00:11:12 --> 00:11:13 it'll come to me or someone will someone
00:11:13 --> 00:11:16 will message us and tell us but um yeah
00:11:16 --> 00:11:19 I I love this this story for that very
00:11:19 --> 00:11:22 reason because um even on Earth though
00:11:22 --> 00:11:25 Fred you said it um there is
00:11:25 --> 00:11:27 communication on Earth that does just
00:11:27 --> 00:11:31 that um like dogs and cats and other
00:11:31 --> 00:11:34 animals do communicate with odor more so
00:11:34 --> 00:11:38 than they do spoken language and um and
00:11:38 --> 00:11:41 and many other creatures communicate
00:11:41 --> 00:11:42 with
00:11:42 --> 00:11:44 signals um whether it's mating or
00:11:44 --> 00:11:46 whether it's just day-to-day
00:11:46 --> 00:11:49 communication it's uh it is yeah it it
00:11:49 --> 00:11:52 it's something to consider um imagine
00:11:52 --> 00:11:55 getting a video message from a an alien
00:11:55 --> 00:11:57 race and they they spoke in sign or
00:11:57 --> 00:11:59 something like that yeah try to figure
00:11:59 --> 00:12:02 that one out yeah it's uh it's it's
00:12:02 --> 00:12:05 extraordinary space.com um is where you
00:12:05 --> 00:12:08 can read that uh Amazing
00:12:08 --> 00:12:10 Story let's take a little break from the
00:12:11 --> 00:12:14 show to tell you about our new sponsor
00:12:14 --> 00:12:17 sale now as you're probably Weare U my
00:12:17 --> 00:12:18 wife and I have done a fair bit of
00:12:18 --> 00:12:20 traveling in recent times one of the
00:12:20 --> 00:12:23 pitfalls we find is internet access
00:12:23 --> 00:12:25 especially when we're out and about we
00:12:25 --> 00:12:27 uh you know we want to stay in touch or
00:12:27 --> 00:12:28 we want to send a photo to the kidss or
00:12:28 --> 00:12:31 we want to do a Snapchat or something
00:12:31 --> 00:12:35 like that um most recently in Turkey we
00:12:35 --> 00:12:38 uh we bought uh International roaming
00:12:38 --> 00:12:40 from our current carrier which was not
00:12:40 --> 00:12:43 cheap and we did the same some years ago
00:12:43 --> 00:12:45 with our previous carrier which was even
00:12:45 --> 00:12:47 more expensive I mean some of these
00:12:47 --> 00:12:50 things can run in at 10 bucks a day uh
00:12:50 --> 00:12:53 which is an awful lot to pay for very
00:12:53 --> 00:12:57 limited services so what's the better
00:12:57 --> 00:12:59 option the better option is to buy an
00:12:59 --> 00:13:03 eim from a company that specializes in
00:13:03 --> 00:13:06 overseas internet connectivity and that
00:13:06 --> 00:13:12 is s s a i l y now s is an organization
00:13:13 --> 00:13:16 that's available through uh 160
00:13:16 --> 00:13:18 countries and eight regions around the
00:13:18 --> 00:13:20 world which gives them a very strong
00:13:20 --> 00:13:24 presence it's also not expensive if
00:13:24 --> 00:13:25 you're traveling internationally soon
00:13:26 --> 00:13:27 and this is something you'd like to get
00:13:27 --> 00:13:29 a hold of bearing in mind there there's
00:13:29 --> 00:13:31 a big discount at the moment for Space
00:13:31 --> 00:13:34 Nuts listeners just download the s app
00:13:34 --> 00:13:36 on your device whether it's Android or
00:13:36 --> 00:13:39 Apple choose your plan and don't forget
00:13:39 --> 00:13:41 to use the code word Space Nuts when
00:13:41 --> 00:13:44 you're ready to pay and you'll get a
00:13:44 --> 00:13:48 15% discount that's the s app download
00:13:48 --> 00:13:51 that on your device and they have 24hour
00:13:51 --> 00:13:54 7-Day a week support and if it doesn't
00:13:54 --> 00:13:56 work you'll get a full refund but uh
00:13:56 --> 00:13:58 they're pretty sure that you'll get the
00:13:58 --> 00:14:01 best out of their service so if you're
00:14:01 --> 00:14:03 traveling soon and you need access to
00:14:03 --> 00:14:06 the internet uh via a carriage service
00:14:06 --> 00:14:08 in another country this is the way to do
00:14:08 --> 00:14:12 it download the s app today choose your
00:14:12 --> 00:14:14 plan and don't forget the Space Nuts
00:14:14 --> 00:14:18 code word for that 15% discount on the S
00:14:18 --> 00:14:20 service wherever you're going in the
00:14:20 --> 00:14:23 world I'm sure you won't be disappointed
00:14:23 --> 00:14:24 it's backed by
00:14:24 --> 00:14:27 nordvpn uh a great company that backs
00:14:27 --> 00:14:31 its products one 100% find out more
00:14:31 --> 00:14:34 about s in our show notes now back to
00:14:34 --> 00:14:37 Space Nuts okay we check all four
00:14:37 --> 00:14:39 systems and space
00:14:39 --> 00:14:43 Nets um while we're talking about Mars
00:14:43 --> 00:14:46 Fred let's move on to uh a completely
00:14:46 --> 00:14:49 different um situation and and this
00:14:49 --> 00:14:51 looks at the ancient history of Mars in
00:14:51 --> 00:14:55 terms of its uh carbon dioxide which is
00:14:55 --> 00:14:58 quite prevalent on on the red planet but
00:14:58 --> 00:14:59 uh
00:14:59 --> 00:15:02 at some stage there was a change in the
00:15:02 --> 00:15:04 planet and we all thought it was like a
00:15:04 --> 00:15:07 global warming type of an event which
00:15:07 --> 00:15:09 has seen a lot of the CO2 end up in the
00:15:09 --> 00:15:12 in the regulus but there's a new study
00:15:12 --> 00:15:14 out that's saying hang on a minute hang
00:15:14 --> 00:15:16 on a minute we think it could have
00:15:16 --> 00:15:17 happened another
00:15:17 --> 00:15:22 way yeah that's right uh so you're quite
00:15:22 --> 00:15:25 right that's um you know we we we we
00:15:25 --> 00:15:27 think of Mars as having had a warm and
00:15:27 --> 00:15:30 wet past and the evidence to be there
00:15:30 --> 00:15:32 and then what came after that was we
00:15:32 --> 00:15:34 don't know whether it was dramatic or
00:15:34 --> 00:15:36 whether it was a sudden end or whe
00:15:36 --> 00:15:38 whether all the water evaporated into
00:15:38 --> 00:15:40 the atmosphere and to become dissociated
00:15:40 --> 00:15:42 into hydrogen and oxygen and be lost we
00:15:42 --> 00:15:45 know a lot of it is still there as nice
00:15:45 --> 00:15:48 under the under the the soil or regul of
00:15:48 --> 00:15:52 Mars uh but there um there's a a model
00:15:52 --> 00:15:56 that um has uh basically been well it's
00:15:56 --> 00:15:59 developed by uh a researcher by the name
00:15:59 --> 00:16:02 of Peter bulla I think b u l r at the
00:16:03 --> 00:16:05 planetary Science Institute uh in the
00:16:05 --> 00:16:11 USA and uh oh yeah he he's related to
00:16:11 --> 00:16:14 Ferris right like well right over my
00:16:14 --> 00:16:16 head no people don't know what I'm
00:16:16 --> 00:16:18 talking about that's another movie
00:16:18 --> 00:16:22 reference ferris ferris bu's day
00:16:22 --> 00:16:25 off right okay you watch too many movies
00:16:25 --> 00:16:27 or I don't watch enough I'm not quite
00:16:27 --> 00:16:31 sure which it is yeah probably true both
00:16:31 --> 00:16:33 I think both are
00:16:33 --> 00:16:37 true all right um um okay having put
00:16:37 --> 00:16:41 that one to bed uh poua not Ferris Boer
00:16:41 --> 00:16:44 uh is um he's built a model of the way
00:16:44 --> 00:16:48 M's atmosphere Works uh in terms of its
00:16:49 --> 00:16:50 carbon dioxide cycle you know we we've
00:16:51 --> 00:16:53 known about this for a while have read
00:16:53 --> 00:16:56 um before about the way carbon dioxide
00:16:56 --> 00:16:59 uh sort of crosses between being a gas
00:16:59 --> 00:17:02 uh and being solid uh and you know it
00:17:02 --> 00:17:03 depends on the season and things of that
00:17:04 --> 00:17:12 sort in uh on in in on Mars um so it it
00:17:12 --> 00:17:15 buus carbon dioxide cycle uh is all
00:17:16 --> 00:17:19 about The Interchange of carbon dioxide
00:17:19 --> 00:17:21 again with this soil so that you can you
00:17:21 --> 00:17:23 can actually get the soil forming a thin
00:17:23 --> 00:17:26 coating of solid carbon dioxide on each
00:17:26 --> 00:17:29 grain of soil uh if you've got the right
00:17:29 --> 00:17:31 sort of weather conditions uh and then
00:17:31 --> 00:17:34 that in heat when it's when it's warm
00:17:34 --> 00:17:36 that carbon dioxide goes into the
00:17:36 --> 00:17:40 atmosphere it gets warm enough to to to
00:17:40 --> 00:17:42 stop being a solid and become a gas um
00:17:42 --> 00:17:45 and then it can migrate from the
00:17:45 --> 00:17:47 atmosphere over to the polar caps where
00:17:47 --> 00:17:49 it's cold again because they're the
00:17:49 --> 00:17:51 poles uh and you get it freezing out so
00:17:51 --> 00:17:53 we know that some of the ice and the
00:17:53 --> 00:17:55 polar caps of Mars is solid carbon
00:17:56 --> 00:18:01 dioxide however what uh Dr bull has done
00:18:01 --> 00:18:03 is um looked at what might have been
00:18:03 --> 00:18:06 happening when Mars did change from
00:18:06 --> 00:18:09 being a warm wet climate to a cold dry
00:18:09 --> 00:18:14 one and the work that he's done is uh
00:18:14 --> 00:18:17 quite interesting in that it it
00:18:17 --> 00:18:21 highlights uh a a an aspect of the
00:18:21 --> 00:18:23 Martian liquid water that we know was on
00:18:23 --> 00:18:27 the surface uh in a way that we have not
00:18:27 --> 00:18:29 thought about before and I'm I'm going
00:18:29 --> 00:18:32 to quote him actually because that's um
00:18:32 --> 00:18:35 it actually uh sums it up very nicely uh
00:18:36 --> 00:18:38 Peter Brer says this model describes the
00:18:38 --> 00:18:41 origins of major landscape features on
00:18:41 --> 00:18:43 NS like the biggest lake the biggest
00:18:43 --> 00:18:46 valleys and the biggest Esa system and
00:18:46 --> 00:18:48 escas are uh the remains of rivers that
00:18:48 --> 00:18:51 once flowed beneath ice I remember that
00:18:51 --> 00:18:53 from my school days when we studied
00:18:53 --> 00:18:56 those things um so uh the biggest Esa
00:18:57 --> 00:18:59 systems in a self-consistent way and
00:18:59 --> 00:19:01 it's only relying on a process that we
00:19:01 --> 00:19:04 see today which is just carbon dioxide
00:19:04 --> 00:19:06 collapsing from the atmosphere and so
00:19:06 --> 00:19:11 what his model says is that uh the the
00:19:11 --> 00:19:14 carbon dioxide that's actually locked up
00:19:14 --> 00:19:17 in the regali The Martian soil in warm
00:19:17 --> 00:19:20 conditions that will escape uh and will
00:19:20 --> 00:19:24 freeze back and may well freeze back
00:19:24 --> 00:19:28 onto uh icy regions uh now we know that
00:19:28 --> 00:19:30 the problem probably Mars was covered
00:19:31 --> 00:19:32 not all of it but a lot of it was
00:19:32 --> 00:19:35 probably covered by Ice early in its
00:19:35 --> 00:19:37 history and his suggestion is that a
00:19:37 --> 00:19:40 layer of solid carbon dioxide on top of
00:19:40 --> 00:19:42 the ice actually acts as a blanket it's
00:19:42 --> 00:19:45 a it's a it's a thermal blanket which
00:19:45 --> 00:19:49 means that the um the ice underneath it
00:19:49 --> 00:19:54 uh basically doesn't lose the heat out
00:19:54 --> 00:19:57 into space and so because of the
00:19:57 --> 00:19:59 residual heat from the interior of Mars
00:19:59 --> 00:20:02 which warms the underside of the ice you
00:20:02 --> 00:20:04 might very well get liquid water
00:20:04 --> 00:20:06 underneath a layer of ice underneath a
00:20:06 --> 00:20:08 thin layer of carbon dioxide which is
00:20:08 --> 00:20:11 keeping the keeping the heat in and then
00:20:11 --> 00:20:13 if you've got L lakes and rivers
00:20:13 --> 00:20:15 underneath that ice then they're going
00:20:15 --> 00:20:17 to form the sort of landscape features
00:20:17 --> 00:20:19 that Peter bll is talking about so it's
00:20:19 --> 00:20:24 a it's a complex uh picture um but uh it
00:20:24 --> 00:20:26 basically it suggests there's a
00:20:26 --> 00:20:28 kilometer of carbon dioxide on top of
00:20:28 --> 00:20:31 something like 6 kilometers of water ice
00:20:31 --> 00:20:33 and then underneath that is running
00:20:33 --> 00:20:35 water which is really quite an
00:20:35 --> 00:20:36 extraordinary
00:20:36 --> 00:20:41 scenario yeah um is this going to be
00:20:41 --> 00:20:43 subject to peer review or are they
00:20:43 --> 00:20:44 pretty confident they've got this right
00:20:44 --> 00:20:46 because what they're saying is look
00:20:46 --> 00:20:48 we've we've had this preconceived idea
00:20:48 --> 00:20:51 for a long time about how things might
00:20:51 --> 00:20:53 have transpired on Mars but they're
00:20:53 --> 00:20:56 throwing up a completely different
00:20:56 --> 00:21:01 scenario uh that's right I think it's um
00:21:01 --> 00:21:03 uh I'm it's it's actually in uh the
00:21:03 --> 00:21:05 Journal of geophysical research but I'm
00:21:05 --> 00:21:07 not sure whether it has got through peer
00:21:07 --> 00:21:10 review I suspect it has uh I haven't
00:21:10 --> 00:21:12 looked closely enough at that uh the
00:21:12 --> 00:21:15 title of this paper is it's a a lengthy
00:21:15 --> 00:21:19 title uh massive ice sheet basil melting
00:21:19 --> 00:21:21 triggered by atmospheric collapse on
00:21:21 --> 00:21:24 Mars leading to formation of overtopped
00:21:24 --> 00:21:27 ice covered argia Basin paleo Lake fed
00:21:28 --> 00:21:30 by one th000 kilometer Rivers there you
00:21:30 --> 00:21:32 go that's the story double degree
00:21:32 --> 00:21:34 language you just you just read the
00:21:34 --> 00:21:35 whole
00:21:35 --> 00:21:40 paper that was just a title yeah yeah uh
00:21:40 --> 00:21:42 but you know one of one of two of the
00:21:42 --> 00:21:44 interesting things that I i' glean from
00:21:44 --> 00:21:47 this is um is is is what Mars used to be
00:21:47 --> 00:21:51 like and they say it had um oceans the
00:21:51 --> 00:21:53 size of Earth's Mediterranean Sea for
00:21:53 --> 00:21:55 example it's just hard to imagine when
00:21:55 --> 00:21:57 you look at it now that's that's right I
00:21:57 --> 00:22:00 mean when when you look at Mars you know
00:22:00 --> 00:22:02 on a topological map you see how
00:22:02 --> 00:22:04 low-lying the northern hemisphere is and
00:22:04 --> 00:22:06 it's very easy to believe that that was
00:22:07 --> 00:22:09 perhaps covered with with an ocean um
00:22:09 --> 00:22:11 it's also very sparsely created the
00:22:11 --> 00:22:13 northern hemisphere which means it's a
00:22:13 --> 00:22:15 relatively recent surface it's a
00:22:15 --> 00:22:18 particular region uh that F bullas paper
00:22:18 --> 00:22:21 is referring to the AR Basin it is about
00:22:21 --> 00:22:24 the size of the Mediterranean Sea um and
00:22:24 --> 00:22:29 uh the thought is that uh that was one
00:22:29 --> 00:22:31 covered with ice but with water
00:22:31 --> 00:22:34 underneath it and uh and basically
00:22:34 --> 00:22:36 draining to to Northern the Northern
00:22:36 --> 00:22:39 Plains of of Mars it's um it's really
00:22:39 --> 00:22:42 quite an extraordinary idea uh but what
00:22:42 --> 00:22:45 He suggests also is that this might have
00:22:45 --> 00:22:48 happened multiple times uh you might
00:22:48 --> 00:22:50 have had this suggesting it might have
00:22:50 --> 00:22:53 happened uh millions millions of years
00:22:53 --> 00:22:56 apart uh during an era that might have
00:22:56 --> 00:22:58 lasted for you know a tenth of a billion
00:22:58 --> 00:23:01 in other words 100 million years so it
00:23:01 --> 00:23:03 is a quite an interesting scenario that
00:23:03 --> 00:23:06 um that may well have given rise to some
00:23:06 --> 00:23:07 of these features that are otherwise
00:23:07 --> 00:23:09 difficult to explain in the landscape of
00:23:09 --> 00:23:12 Mars yeah they also reference uh the
00:23:12 --> 00:23:15 rotational tilt cycle of Mars and how
00:23:15 --> 00:23:17 that might have been a factor because it
00:23:17 --> 00:23:21 it does sort of every 100 years um
00:23:21 --> 00:23:23 move into a into different positions and
00:23:23 --> 00:23:25 that can affect what's happening with
00:23:25 --> 00:23:29 the um CO2 cycle I think yeah saying
00:23:29 --> 00:23:30 because the difference of solar
00:23:30 --> 00:23:33 radiation that's right um and and that's
00:23:33 --> 00:23:34 one of the things you know that
00:23:34 --> 00:23:36 highlights how important our moon has
00:23:36 --> 00:23:39 been uh in in our Evolution because the
00:23:39 --> 00:23:41 Earth doesn't do that because the moon
00:23:41 --> 00:23:44 stabilizes the Earth's Tilt Mars doesn't
00:23:44 --> 00:23:46 have that and so it tilt has wandered
00:23:46 --> 00:23:48 around uh as you said with the
00:23:48 --> 00:23:50 periodicity in the region of 100
00:23:50 --> 00:23:53 years so yeah so so went when God built
00:23:53 --> 00:23:55 Mars he just put two tiny little rocks
00:23:55 --> 00:23:57 there to stabilize it and went oh damn
00:23:57 --> 00:24:00 that didn't work let's try again
00:24:00 --> 00:24:02 again I didn't know she swore I didn't
00:24:02 --> 00:24:04 know got swear right
00:24:04 --> 00:24:07 now anyway um whatever happened and
00:24:07 --> 00:24:08 those two moons yeah they were probably
00:24:08 --> 00:24:10 collected by Miles later and one of
00:24:10 --> 00:24:12 them's not going to last very long
00:24:12 --> 00:24:14 because it's going to crash into the
00:24:14 --> 00:24:17 planet so uh yes but yes interesting
00:24:17 --> 00:24:18 stuff and it does highlight the
00:24:18 --> 00:24:20 difference doesn't it between our own
00:24:20 --> 00:24:22 planet and well every other planet
00:24:22 --> 00:24:24 pretty well yes it does but the
00:24:24 --> 00:24:26 similarities between Mars and Earth are
00:24:26 --> 00:24:29 quite um Eerie in certain respects you
00:24:29 --> 00:24:33 you talk about how the that you know the
00:24:33 --> 00:24:35 the oceans would have dominated one
00:24:35 --> 00:24:39 hemisphere on Mars it's similar on Earth
00:24:39 --> 00:24:40 because basically the southern
00:24:40 --> 00:24:43 hemisphere is a lot wetter or waterier
00:24:43 --> 00:24:45 than the northern hemisphere in terms of
00:24:45 --> 00:24:48 ocean size and and Geographic layout
00:24:48 --> 00:24:51 it's it and so many other things the
00:24:51 --> 00:24:55 canyons and the um yeah Earth and Mars
00:24:55 --> 00:24:57 are so similar in many many ways except
00:24:57 --> 00:25:00 Earth's a much bigger planet but um the
00:25:00 --> 00:25:02 features on Mars are
00:25:02 --> 00:25:05 incredible uh and quite earthlike in
00:25:05 --> 00:25:08 many ways yeah and I I I gather that
00:25:08 --> 00:25:10 Venus probably was at one stage like
00:25:10 --> 00:25:13 that as well before the runaway um
00:25:13 --> 00:25:15 greenhouse effect messed it up
00:25:15 --> 00:25:18 completely so um yeah quite quite
00:25:18 --> 00:25:20 amazing uh you can read all about that
00:25:20 --> 00:25:25 story at the Fizz phys fizz. org website
00:25:25 --> 00:25:28 this is Space Nuts with Andrew Dunley
00:25:28 --> 00:25:33 and Professor Fred
00:25:33 --> 00:25:36 Watson here also Space Nuts uh our final
00:25:36 --> 00:25:40 story today Fred is surprising in that
00:25:40 --> 00:25:44 we finally get to talk about black
00:25:44 --> 00:25:46 holes I've I've missed the black holes I
00:25:46 --> 00:25:48 have to say I've missed yeah yes we
00:25:48 --> 00:25:51 haven't talked about them for maybe a
00:25:51 --> 00:25:55 week maybe that uh but this is quite a
00:25:55 --> 00:25:57 staggering Discovery this is a black
00:25:57 --> 00:26:02 hole that is um basically defying logic
00:26:02 --> 00:26:04 by eating more than it would be capable
00:26:04 --> 00:26:06 of eating a lot of people do that we
00:26:06 --> 00:26:09 have an obesity epidemic in this planet
00:26:10 --> 00:26:12 um but this is this is a gargantuan
00:26:12 --> 00:26:14 situation where there's a black hole
00:26:14 --> 00:26:16 they've discovered that is Ming on so
00:26:16 --> 00:26:20 much stuff they have gleaned that it it
00:26:20 --> 00:26:23 can't eat that much so how do you
00:26:23 --> 00:26:26 explain uh yes that's right so clearly
00:26:26 --> 00:26:28 it is doing so so uh how do you tell
00:26:28 --> 00:26:30 when a black hole is is gobbling up
00:26:31 --> 00:26:35 stuff uh it is uh basically uh
00:26:35 --> 00:26:37 surrounded by so much infalling material
00:26:37 --> 00:26:40 so much stuff swirling around that that
00:26:40 --> 00:26:44 stuff is uh energized to high levels
00:26:44 --> 00:26:47 which means that it emits radiation and
00:26:47 --> 00:26:49 a lot of it comes up in the X-ray region
00:26:49 --> 00:26:52 of the spectrum uh so if you've got
00:26:52 --> 00:26:54 something that's very bright in in the
00:26:54 --> 00:26:58 X-ray Spectrum uh you might be expecting
00:26:58 --> 00:27:00 that you're talking about as something
00:27:00 --> 00:27:03 that's been you know a a bunch of
00:27:03 --> 00:27:05 material that is being energized by a
00:27:05 --> 00:27:07 black hole and is falling into a black
00:27:07 --> 00:27:09 hole and that's how this story starts
00:27:09 --> 00:27:12 Andrew because um uh it's a group of
00:27:12 --> 00:27:15 scientists uh LED actually by um
00:27:15 --> 00:27:17 scientists at the international Germany
00:27:17 --> 00:27:19 Observatory and that's operated by the
00:27:19 --> 00:27:22 national science foundation's uh Noir
00:27:22 --> 00:27:25 lab uh which is the national Optical
00:27:25 --> 00:27:27 infrared laboratory uh and so as strong
00:27:27 --> 00:27:31 as there have uh looked at not just the
00:27:31 --> 00:27:34 optical astronomy that they are normally
00:27:34 --> 00:27:36 working on because all those are Optical
00:27:36 --> 00:27:41 facilities uh they've basically observed
00:27:41 --> 00:27:45 a set of galaxies that have come from an
00:27:45 --> 00:27:47 an x-ray Observatory which is in orbit
00:27:48 --> 00:27:50 around the Earth it's called Chandra uh
00:27:50 --> 00:27:53 they've Chandra did a survey of bright
00:27:53 --> 00:27:55 x-ray galaxies and so what these
00:27:55 --> 00:27:58 astronomers have done is taken that uh
00:27:58 --> 00:28:00 set of galaxies and then used another
00:28:00 --> 00:28:03 facility which is not x-ray but that's
00:28:03 --> 00:28:05 the James web Space Telescope which of
00:28:05 --> 00:28:07 course looks in the infrared to observe
00:28:07 --> 00:28:09 them and there's an instrument on the
00:28:09 --> 00:28:11 James web Space Telescope it's called an
00:28:11 --> 00:28:13 integral field spectrograph uh which
00:28:14 --> 00:28:15 does uh what we sometimes call
00:28:15 --> 00:28:17 hyperspectral Imaging when you looking
00:28:17 --> 00:28:19 looking at the Earth from space you do
00:28:19 --> 00:28:21 hyperspectral imaging when you're
00:28:21 --> 00:28:24 looking at uh the universe with the same
00:28:25 --> 00:28:26 instrument you call it integral field
00:28:26 --> 00:28:29 spectroscopy but there the same thing
00:28:29 --> 00:28:31 what you're doing is you're making an
00:28:31 --> 00:28:34 image but for every pixel in the image
00:28:34 --> 00:28:36 you you form you're making a spectrum so
00:28:36 --> 00:28:38 for every pixel of light that's in that
00:28:38 --> 00:28:41 image you can look at the distribution
00:28:41 --> 00:28:43 of the light with wavelength and reveal
00:28:43 --> 00:28:44 that barcode of information that we
00:28:44 --> 00:28:46 often talk about that uh that is
00:28:46 --> 00:28:49 basically the key to understanding the
00:28:49 --> 00:28:51 source of the light and it's uh and and
00:28:51 --> 00:28:54 and what what it's passed through and so
00:28:54 --> 00:28:57 um they've done that uh and they've
00:28:57 --> 00:29:00 found one particular Galaxy uh by the
00:29:00 --> 00:29:03 name of liid 568 sounds more like a car
00:29:03 --> 00:29:05 redro to me but that's also the name of
00:29:05 --> 00:29:08 a galaxy funly enough one of my first
00:29:08 --> 00:29:11 vehicles uh had the number plate
00:29:11 --> 00:29:15 ldi there you go see what I mean
00:29:15 --> 00:29:19 yeah yep uh so liid
00:29:19 --> 00:29:23 568 uh which uh yeah could be a Chevy it
00:29:23 --> 00:29:24 could be a Mercedes I don't know what it
00:29:24 --> 00:29:28 be anyway M was a is she Magna
00:29:28 --> 00:29:30 yeah I us to have one of those yep
00:29:30 --> 00:29:33 anyway never mind that's all that's all
00:29:33 --> 00:29:37 aside um the the this particular
00:29:37 --> 00:29:40 Galaxy which we're seeing you know the
00:29:40 --> 00:29:46 look back time is basically about
00:29:46 --> 00:29:48 124 uh
00:29:49 --> 00:29:52 12.3 billion years uh which means we're
00:29:52 --> 00:29:53 seeing it when the universe was about
00:29:53 --> 00:29:58 one and a half billion years old um it's
00:29:58 --> 00:30:00 it's got It's very bright in X-rays and
00:30:00 --> 00:30:03 it tells you that there's a lot going on
00:30:03 --> 00:30:05 there and so with this integral field
00:30:05 --> 00:30:07 spectrograph on the James web Space
00:30:07 --> 00:30:10 Telescope uh what they were able to do
00:30:10 --> 00:30:14 was uh find that there are amazingly
00:30:14 --> 00:30:18 powerful outflows of gas around the the
00:30:18 --> 00:30:21 the central black hole of this galaxy uh
00:30:21 --> 00:30:24 and um what that suggests these outflows
00:30:24 --> 00:30:27 of course come from the you know the
00:30:27 --> 00:30:29 magnetic field around the the Galaxy
00:30:29 --> 00:30:31 it's uh sorry around the black hole we
00:30:31 --> 00:30:34 we we're often questioned by our
00:30:34 --> 00:30:36 listeners about so if nothing can
00:30:36 --> 00:30:38 survive being pulled into a black hole
00:30:38 --> 00:30:40 how come they radiate X-rays and how
00:30:40 --> 00:30:42 come stuff comes out of them um and
00:30:42 --> 00:30:44 that's because of the magnetic fields
00:30:44 --> 00:30:47 that they generate uh so what what
00:30:47 --> 00:30:49 they've done is looked at these outflows
00:30:50 --> 00:30:54 of gas um but the the the bottom line
00:30:54 --> 00:30:59 here is that uh it looks as though
00:30:59 --> 00:31:02 when this thing was actively really
00:31:02 --> 00:31:05 actively gobbling stuff up um it sort of
00:31:05 --> 00:31:08 all uh occurred very quickly in other
00:31:09 --> 00:31:11 words it amassed a lot of material very
00:31:11 --> 00:31:13 quickly so that this black hole might
00:31:13 --> 00:31:16 have grown to super massive proportions
00:31:16 --> 00:31:19 over a very short time um I'm actually
00:31:19 --> 00:31:21 going to read it again we've we've got
00:31:21 --> 00:31:25 this on f.org a very nice account of of
00:31:25 --> 00:31:28 what uh of what the
00:31:29 --> 00:31:31 what the um you know exactly what the
00:31:31 --> 00:31:34 what is happening here uh so I'm quoting
00:31:34 --> 00:31:37 here from fiz doog uh in a stunning
00:31:37 --> 00:31:41 Discovery Sue and her team uh it's s s
00:31:41 --> 00:31:43 that's the astronomer working leading
00:31:43 --> 00:31:45 this Sue and her team found that liid
00:31:46 --> 00:31:49 568 appears to be feeding on matter at a
00:31:49 --> 00:31:53 rate 40 times its Edington limit this
00:31:53 --> 00:31:55 limit relates to the maximum brightness
00:31:55 --> 00:31:58 that a black hole can achieve as well as
00:31:58 --> 00:32:00 how fast it can absorb matter such that
00:32:00 --> 00:32:03 its inward gravitational force and
00:32:03 --> 00:32:05 outward pressure generated from the heat
00:32:05 --> 00:32:07 of the compressed in Falling matter
00:32:07 --> 00:32:11 remain in Balance um when Li 568
00:32:11 --> 00:32:14 Luminosity was calculated to be so much
00:32:14 --> 00:32:16 higher than theoretically possible the
00:32:16 --> 00:32:18 team knew they had some something
00:32:18 --> 00:32:22 remarkable in their data um the black
00:32:22 --> 00:32:24 hole is having a feast that's a quote
00:32:24 --> 00:32:26 from one of the co-authors this extreme
00:32:26 --> 00:32:28 case shows that a fast feeding mechanism
00:32:28 --> 00:32:30 above the Edington limit is one of the
00:32:30 --> 00:32:32 possible explanations for why we see
00:32:32 --> 00:32:34 these very heavy black holes so early in
00:32:34 --> 00:32:36 the universe that's the crucial point of
00:32:36 --> 00:32:39 this uh this paper um this is a clue to
00:32:39 --> 00:32:41 the fact that you know whereas we
00:32:41 --> 00:32:43 thought that mass black holes grew to be
00:32:43 --> 00:32:45 super massive over a very long period of
00:32:45 --> 00:32:47 time it looks as though they can gobble
00:32:47 --> 00:32:50 up stuff very very quickly uh early in
00:32:50 --> 00:32:53 the history of the universe which might
00:32:53 --> 00:32:56 um really um illuminate this conundrum
00:32:56 --> 00:32:57 that some people have pointed out that
00:32:57 --> 00:32:59 galaxies look as though they're they're
00:32:59 --> 00:33:01 they're more highly evolved very early
00:33:01 --> 00:33:03 in the the universe than they ought to
00:33:03 --> 00:33:05 be this might be the reason why
00:33:05 --> 00:33:09 fascinating yeah and so so in in terms
00:33:09 --> 00:33:11 of eating more than they're capable
00:33:11 --> 00:33:14 of obviously they're disposing of stuff
00:33:14 --> 00:33:17 so that they can keep eating uh at the
00:33:17 --> 00:33:19 same that's right yeah that's that's
00:33:19 --> 00:33:22 right so so and what it's saying is that
00:33:22 --> 00:33:24 you know this the Addington limit comes
00:33:24 --> 00:33:25 about because you expect there to be a
00:33:25 --> 00:33:27 balance between the the gravitational p
00:33:27 --> 00:33:29 of stuff coming in and the pressure that
00:33:29 --> 00:33:31 the radiation is pushing it out with
00:33:31 --> 00:33:34 with this obviously uh exceeds the
00:33:34 --> 00:33:36 Edington limit which means that
00:33:36 --> 00:33:38 basically it it is eating more than it
00:33:38 --> 00:33:40 can cope with so a lot of stuff's coming
00:33:40 --> 00:33:43 out I mean there are I'm sure there are
00:33:43 --> 00:33:44 parallels that we can put in human
00:33:44 --> 00:33:46 digestion but I'm not really going to go
00:33:46 --> 00:33:48 there Andrew because no I I've actually
00:33:48 --> 00:33:52 W I've witnessed a um comparative
00:33:52 --> 00:33:54 scenario as yesterday when we were
00:33:54 --> 00:33:56 babysitting the uh the grandchildren
00:33:56 --> 00:33:59 young Harriet was eating a packet of
00:33:59 --> 00:34:03 chips and uh as she was eating all this
00:34:03 --> 00:34:05 debris just kept falling on the ground
00:34:05 --> 00:34:09 it was quite incredible
00:34:09 --> 00:34:12 yeah yeah okay that's probably as far as
00:34:12 --> 00:34:14 you want to go with that yeah I think so
00:34:14 --> 00:34:17 yeah yes it was extraordinary to watch I
00:34:17 --> 00:34:19 must say I was thinking black hole at
00:34:19 --> 00:34:22 the time um another another weird
00:34:22 --> 00:34:24 coincidence Fred this is two weeks in a
00:34:24 --> 00:34:27 row where you've read a quote that I'd
00:34:27 --> 00:34:29 highlighted to bring up with you at the
00:34:29 --> 00:34:32 same time as you started reading it so I
00:34:32 --> 00:34:34 think we're becoming symbiotic we must
00:34:34 --> 00:34:36 be we're probably entangled Andrew that
00:34:37 --> 00:34:39 uh will be one Quantum
00:34:39 --> 00:34:41 physicists in fact that'll be good
00:34:41 --> 00:34:43 because soon we'll be able to talk to
00:34:43 --> 00:34:44 each other faster than the speed of life
00:34:44 --> 00:34:46 if we're quantumly entangled that'll be
00:34:46 --> 00:34:50 fine yes we'll be able to um end the
00:34:50 --> 00:34:51 show before
00:34:51 --> 00:34:55 began I thought that always
00:34:55 --> 00:34:58 happened pretty much pretty much
00:34:58 --> 00:35:01 uh but no fascinating story and again um
00:35:01 --> 00:35:04 from one of our favorite sources fizz.
00:35:04 --> 00:35:07 org if you'd like to read up on that oh
00:35:07 --> 00:35:08 and by the way Fred I remember the name
00:35:09 --> 00:35:10 of that movie that we were talking about
00:35:10 --> 00:35:13 early on uh the one where the aliens
00:35:13 --> 00:35:15 arrived seeking our help but we couldn't
00:35:15 --> 00:35:17 understand what they were saying uh
00:35:17 --> 00:35:20 arriv Ral it was called a
00:35:20 --> 00:35:22 rival which was
00:35:22 --> 00:35:25 a that that was a good one yeah and you
00:35:25 --> 00:35:27 got you had and you couldn't Take Your
00:35:27 --> 00:35:29 Eye Off you'll go what I don't know
00:35:29 --> 00:35:31 what's happening now if you you can't
00:35:31 --> 00:35:33 lose focus on that film it is so
00:35:33 --> 00:35:36 complicated at least for someone with my
00:35:36 --> 00:35:39 brain anyway and and the homework for me
00:35:39 --> 00:35:43 is to find out who Ferris Boer was F
00:35:43 --> 00:35:45 it's a it's a it's a really good film
00:35:45 --> 00:35:48 it's a it's it's got a cult following
00:35:48 --> 00:35:50 it's yeah I I do enjoy it I haven't
00:35:50 --> 00:35:51 watched it for a long time but I feel
00:35:51 --> 00:35:54 like watching it again uh thanks Fred
00:35:54 --> 00:35:56 we're all done and dusted good to talk
00:35:56 --> 00:35:58 to you uh great great to start to you
00:35:58 --> 00:36:00 too Andrew and I hope you have a good
00:36:00 --> 00:36:02 rest of the day indeed we'll catch up
00:36:02 --> 00:36:06 with you um very soon perhaps very soon
00:36:06 --> 00:36:09 uh Professor Fred Watson and here in the
00:36:09 --> 00:36:10 studio didn't turn up today apparently
00:36:11 --> 00:36:12 had to take the dog to the vet to get
00:36:12 --> 00:36:14 the nails clipped I can hear it from
00:36:14 --> 00:36:17 here and from me Andrew Dunley thanks uh
00:36:17 --> 00:36:20 as always for your company don't forget
00:36:20 --> 00:36:22 to share us and spread the word about it
00:36:22 --> 00:36:24 and um and bring more of your friends
00:36:24 --> 00:36:28 and relatives on board as Space Nuts uh
00:36:28 --> 00:36:29 and from me Andrew dley farewell we'll
00:36:29 --> 00:36:32 catch you on the very next episode
00:36:32 --> 00:36:35 bye-bye you'll be listening to the Space
00:36:35 --> 00:36:36 Nuts
00:36:37 --> 00:36:40 podcast available at Apple podcasts
00:36:40 --> 00:36:43 Spotify ihart radio or your favorite
00:36:43 --> 00:36:45 podcast player you can also stream on
00:36:45 --> 00:36:48 demand at bites.com this has been
00:36:48 --> 00:36:50 another quality podcast production from
00:36:50 --> 00:36:53 bites.com